Cal Softball: Bears Prepare to Test Themselves Against the Best - No. 1 Oklahoma
Cal softball coach Chelsea Spencer doesn’t want to make too much of this, but she understands the task facing the Bears on Friday afternoon in Hawaii.
The Bears (15-6) will play their highest-profile game of the young season when they take on top-ranked and defending national champion Oklahoma at the Rainbow Wahine Classic.
“I’m not going to make the game bigger than it is,” she said. But, she added, “We’ve got to play our best.”
Oklahoma is 16-0 this season and dominates the national statistics. Consider these crazy numbers:
No. 1 in earned run average: 0.64
No. 1 in home runs per game: 2.5
No. 1 in scoring: 8.56 per game
No. 1 in on-base percentage: .476
No. 1 in slugging percentage: .769
No. 2 in batting average: .378
At the heart of the Sooners’ lineup is Jocelyn Alo, the reigning USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, who last season hit 34 home runs. She is current stuck on 95 career homers, which is tied for the collegiate career record. She has gone six games without one, drawing 13 walks in those six games as opponents try to work around her.
“She’s going to get walked again, I’ll tell you that,” Spencer said.
Oklahoma won its first 33 games last season on the way to a final record of 56-4 and its third NCAA title since 2016.
This Oklahoma team has run-ruled 11 of its first 16 opponents, meaning the games were ended when the Sooners led by eight runs or more after five innings.
But it’s their pitching that most impresses Spencer.
“For the first three weekends they didn’t (allow) an earned run. How do you compete with that?” she said. “They can play some defense, they can pitch really well. That’s a recipe for a national championship — just those two. Then you add in the offense they have and it does make them one of the best teams out there.”
Still, Spencer believes Pac-12 favorite UCLA could beat Oklahoma on a given day and says her team’s chances will come down to two things.
“We have to prepare them for what they’re going to see. It’s all about execution,” she said.
The Bears will play three times before facing the Sooners. Cal opens today against Baylor, plays Hawaii on Thursday and then sees Baylor a second time early Friday before facing Oklahoma.
In her second season as Bears’ coach, Spencer is encouraged by the arc of her team’s progress. "I’m pleasantly surprised with where we are in our program, (given) the hit we took (last season) with COVID,” she says in the video above.
The Bears welcome back junior Makena Smith this week after she missed six games because of a concussion. Smith would be leading the Pac-12 with a .548 batting if she’d played enough games to qualify.
“They do call her the GOAT. I don’t question the fact that she is one of the greatest of all-time that’s going to be able to go through the Cal softball program,” said Spencer, who was an All-American shortstop at Cal and played on four straight Women's College World Series teams, including the 2002 national champs. “We talk about batting average a lot, but I really value on-base percentage paired with slugging.”
Those two metrics added up create OPS, which provides a comprehensive measure of a player’s offensive production. In Smith’s case she has a .608 on-base percentage and a 1.071 slugging mark for a 1.679 OPS.
“That is phenomenal,” Spencer said. “She is definitely the engine or our offense.”
As a point of reference, that’s actually a hair higher than Oklahoma slugger Alo’s season mark of 1.675.
Without Smith, the Bears were 3-3 the past two weeks. “We had some bruises coming out of it,” Spencer said, “but I think we rose to the challenge and gave it our best shot and that’s all I can ask for.”
Spencer has been pleased with a number of her players, including freshman infielder Acacia Anders (.810 OPS), sophomore shortstop Tatum Anzaldo (.397 batting average) and sophomore utility player Kacey Zobac (.388 batting average).
She made special mention of sophomore pitcher/right fielder Sona Halajian, who is batting .466 with six home runs and 21 RBI in 21 games, and has an 8-2 pitching record with a 2.13 earned run average. As a freshman last season, she batted .220 with three homers in 31 games and had a 1-9 win-loss record with a 3.82 ERA.
“Sona on the mound and in the box is a different Sona the I’ve ever known,” Spencer said. “She’s taken on the job of get on my back.”
The Bears begin Pac-12 play a week from now, opening on Friday, March 18 with a three-game home series vs. Washington, which was picked second in the conference by the Pac-12 coaches. Cal was tabbed eighth in the nine-team league.
Spencer said the Bears’ big-picture goal is to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament. “As long as we have a good trajectory going up, I feel that we’re in a good spot,” she said. “We’re on our way right now.”
Cover photo of Cal sophomore Tatum Anzaldo by Peter Fukumae
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo